The present invention relates to circuit breakers. In specific embodiments, the invention concerns microprocessor-controlled circuit breakers.
Electrical trip systems are designed to respond to a fault in an electrical supply system by disconnecting the supply from the electrical load. One common trip system uses an electromagnet to trip a breaker in response to a short circuit or an electrical overload. In this type of device, the electromagnet generates a magnetic field when current is flowing through the device. When the current exceeds a threshold level, the magnetic field trips a mechanism that causes the breaker contacts to move apart or disconnect, thereby “breaking” the circuit path.
As the electrical system demands have increased, the level of sophistication of circuit breakers as also increased. Processor-based tripping systems have been developed to provide more accurate and flexible circuit breaking capabilities. These microprocessor-based systems permit programming of many features of the breaker, such as current rating, calibration, and fault conditions, as well as storage of pre-fault data.